lesmiserablesfandomcom-20200214-history
Talk:Enjolras/@comment-28001522-20170106025323/@comment-28001522-20170215044203
Yes, I have read that too, that the red flag meant the fight to the death. But it didn’t, it meant the same as it does now, radical left wing politics. Of course, the terms “left wing” and “right wing” weren’t used in those days. It was associated with the French Revolution and Robespierre, who Enjolras was a follower of. About Enjolras is it said: “He was familiar with every detail of that great event French Revolution, he had it in his blood as though he had been there.” And elsewhere “he went all way with Robespierre”. I think he was a follower of Robespierre’s views for a “virtuous republic” and the egalitarian constitution that he, Saint-Just and others wrote that they were never able to put into practice. During Robespierre and Saint-Just’s time the country was under attack from without and within. There was war with neighbouring countries including England and various revolts and civil strife and mob violence within. Robespierre himself lived a simple life and was celibate, can see Enjolras there. Saint Just was Robespierre’s protégé and right hand man. Enjolras is explicitly compared with Saint Just by Victor Hugo. I think too many people get their history of the French Revolution from The Scarlet Pimpernel and A Tale of Two Cities. It was a torrid time and like all revolutions and civil wars included atrocities. Anyway, back to the red flag and Enjolras and his followers, the word “communist” was used in some instances and people feared “the Reds”, but it wasn’t the same as today, Marx was only a young teenager and Lenin hadn’t been born. Bahorel is said to have “opinions as crimson as his waistcoats” and when they are going along after General Lamarque’s funeral, an onlooker is startled by his crimson waistcoat and cries in alarm, “Here come the Reds!” After Enjolras gives Grantaire permission to go to Barriere du Maine, Grantaire goes home (he lived near the café) and comes back wearing a red Robespierre waistcoat. Why Grantaire would even own such a thing is a mystery! At the General Lamaque funeral convoy, one red flag was raised both in real life and in the novel, unlike the 2012 movie where there seemed to be dozens. The one red flag caused mayhem and the soldiers fired on the crowds. Charles Jeanne, the real life commander of the St Mery barricade hated the red flag, called it “a flag of blood” and wouldn’t have it on his barricade. He also thought that the person who raised it at the funeral was a police saboteur meant to cause trouble. Enjolras was a utopian, idealistic dreamer. Actually Victor Hugo calls the whole group of Amis utopian dreamers. But Enjolras who infused them with his ideas, was the main one. He saw a new world and new dawn on the horizon, a reawakening of the Great French Revolution and Republic over taking France then Europe and then the whole world and a perfect world where everyone would be equal and happy and free and love would rule and there would be no more war. There were sometimes when I read his thoughts and speeches, that I was a bit worried about his sanity, I am afraid to say. But when Enjolras realized that the rebellion was going to fail and all his dreams had turned to dust, he fell into “extreme melancholy” old word for depression and just wanted to die, but he was going to go down fighting and trying to protect his fellows. He wouldn’t have wanted to live, everything that mattered to him was lost. I am afraid I got carried away again.